He was the first science teacher at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute now Virginia State University. Mr. Colson was an 1883 graduate of Dartmouth College. He served as acting principal in 1885 replacing the first principal James...

Daniel Barclay Williams was the first professor of classical languages at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, having been hired in 1885. He was a native of Richmond, VA, and a graduate of Brown University. Professor Williams authored...

An invitation to the 1886 Anniversary of the College Lyceum. The invitation was sent by Mr. Walter Fayerman to his former principal W. L. Hamlin. Mr. Fayerman will go on and become the first college graduate of the Virginia Normal and Collegiate...

Charles James Daniel was born in Orange County, Virginia. Before coming to the Institute he had studied at Howard University, and was a graduate of the Richmond Institute in 1878. He taught school in Louisa County, Virginia, and from 1882 to...

William Henry Johnson is shown in this 1889 wedding photograph with Mrs. Nannie Brewer Johnson. William Henry Johnson was the son of Henry Johnson, who had been born a slave on the old Fleet Plantation site. Mrs. Nannie Brewer Johnson was also...

Mechanical Building (Southern University, New Orleans, La.)
The Mechanical Department at Southern University was initiated on October 7, 1890 and by 1893 it was in full operation and had a three year course of study. There were 27 students in the...

Anna Laura Lindsay was the first member of the faculty to teach music at Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. She came to the "institute" in 1899 and remained head of the Department for thirty-one years. She also served on the faculty for...

Mary Branch graduated from the Normal Department at Virginia State Normal and Collegiate in 1897. She returned to the campus in 1905 as an instructor and remained until 1920. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of...

In 1907, George Washington Owens came to Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute as the second teacher of agriculture. George Washington Owens was the first African American to graduate from Kansas State College in Kansas. He came to Virginia...

James Hugo Johnston, Jr. was the son of the second president and a 1908 graduate of the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute. He received his AB degree from Virginia Union in 1913. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in history in 1937 from the...

In the middle of the top row, reading left to right, Johnella (Frazier) Jackson. Miss Frazier would join the faculty at the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute in 1919 and would write the music for the university alma mater. In 1922 she...

Myra Hill Colson was a graduate of the Art Department of Cheyney Institute in Pennsylvania. She also earned a B.S. from Fisk University in 1915. She joined the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute in the department of science in 1917. She...

Not many HBCUs had Reserve Officers Training Corps, at the beginning of World War I. James Nicholas, who will graduate from Virginia State and become a full professor at Virginia State and Rector of the Board of Visitors, was a member of this corp.